The main objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of Egyptian biomass based on Date palm fronds, (Phoenix dactylifera L) for full-scale manufacturing to produce particleboard of requested quality. For the evaluation, Date palm rachises (DPR) and sugarcane bagasse (SCB) were compared for some of the chemical properties, such as holocellulose, Alfa-cellulose, lignin and ash contents, alcohol–benzene extractives, solubility in dilute alkali (1%NaOH), and hot water solubility. In addition, DPR fiber physical properties such as fiber length diameters, cell wall thickness, scanning with SEM, estimate of ?-cellulose degree of polymerization (DP) and pH of DPR fibers were determined.
Particleboards were made from DPR and SCB as surface and core layer were prepared and mixed with different percentages of urea-formaldehyde (UF) as a binder. The mechanical properties of produced boards such as density, thickness swelling (TS), bending strength (BS), modulus elasticity (MOE), and internal bond (IB) were measured.
Chemical composition of DPR is slight better than SCB. Moreover, the values of DPR fiber lengths, diameters and cell wall thickness are also in the range of hardwoods values. The results indicated that all the panels met the requirements for Load-bearing boards for use in dry conditions type (P4) of European standard (EN 314: 2010).